


Work Through What Holds Us Down (A Meetings Remix)

by navaan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Inspired by Fanart, Kissing, M/M, Mutual Pining, Not A Fix-It, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Remix, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, making up?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-13 01:40:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16883193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: They meet on a lawn after Tony has made the call. Now what? How will this play out? Can they find a way to work it out?





	Work Through What Holds Us Down (A Meetings Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Apivotal's Cap-IronMan Remix Relay Special Art Chain example](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/438252) by Apivotal. 



> For the Cap-IronMan Remix Relay Special Art Chain example, I remixed [Apivotal's awesome art that you can see here](https://cap-ironman-fe.dreamwidth.org/7452.html#cutid3) and then remixed again by faite into [this marvelous piece](https://cap-ironman-fe.dreamwidth.org/7452.html#cutid5). Check out the [Example Chain here](https://cap-ironman-fe.dreamwidth.org/7452.html)! We hope to see artists and writers sign-up for our special relay chain soon! ([Remix 2019 Schedule](https://cap-ironman.dreamwidth.org/1971049.html))

He took measured steps across the lawn, taking the time to time to think this over. Quick thinking is part of who he is and it had saved his life more than once in his life as Iron Man but he had learned an important lesson about not rushing into your next mistake if you could help it. His life was a series of brilliant discoveries, genius ideas and rushed into mistakes and he had tried his best to find a better balance. It was a work in progress.

Getting a better handle on the emotions that had influenced his decisions and had led him to act up, push back, become emotional and lose sight on what was important – that was why he was here.

To rethink. To reevaluate. To work through it and get over it.

To see and understand how this next bit would play out and see what choices he would be left it.

To be a better man, perhaps _the_ better man.

Which was already next to impossible when the person walking towards you with their head down and a baseball cap drawn into their eyes was Steve Rogers – and whatever name that man had picked for what he was doing these days, to Tony and most of the world he would always be _Captain America_.

How did you beat that?

That Steve had chosen to work against instead of with Tony still hurt. That Steve had, in the end, decided that Tony and what they'd been through together didn't rate very high in his list of priorities hurt more but it was hardly surprising. Oh, Tony _got it_. Tony was the one who had grown up with a cold father who never approved of anything he did and had found himself bereft of both parents before he'd ever managed to live up to any of the man's expectations. How could he ever have imagined winning Cap's approval? And of course, Steve had been the one to wake up _alone_ , stranger in a strange land, pulled from one day and age to the other, going from fighting a war that was history to a deceptively peaceful future. While Tony had thought the Avengers had given Steve a place and a support network, who could compete with a childhood friend? Barnes had been Steve's best friend, close as a brother. _Tony_ and the heroics they'd lived through together, the growth Tony had experienced to become a better Avenger – it would never compare to that for Steve.

He came to a halt a few feet away, watched Steve approach slowly. That was fine with Tony. There was no rush now. It gave him time to ponder if letting Steve come to him would send the wrong signal. Should Tony be meeting him instead, signaling his willingness to talk, to work this out?

How would Steve react to it? How could Tony communicate his willingness to put this behind them, forgive and forget?

He waited until Steve was right in front of him.

Steve looked like shit, just like he had looked in the blurred pictures, the CCTV footage and the brief glimpse of satellite captures that over the last months Tony had made sure would never make it to Ross.

“The beard for camouflage?” Tony asked before he could stop himself, regretting it before the question mark had even sounded. He pressed his eyes closed.

_Note: To self. Do not antagonize when you want to make up, even though he was wrong and an idiot. You know how that feels – being wrong and an idiot. That's what you end up being most of the time. Emphasize. Be friendly. Try to smile._

“Tony," Steve said and his voice sounded all those things that Tony was perpetually failing at. Friendly, calm, controlled, non-threatening.

_You can do this, Tony. Look at him. Let him say his piece. Listen. Grind your teeth and work with him. You want to work this out. You know you want him here with you._

_And he came._

_So he wants to work it out too._

“I'm glad you called,” Steve said.

_Ah, yeah, Tony thought. That would set him in the right mood. Good to keep in mind._

“You came when I called.” He wasn't sure why he needed to point it out.

“I did,” Steve agreed and the sad expression on his face took Tony's breath away.

Faced with that, he found he had no idea what to do. He wasn't ready for this, for apologies, for more arguments, for even working it out. The wounds were too fresh, the hurt too deep and he had only just started to pick up the pieces and work with what he'd been left with – helping Vision learn, helping Rhodey recover, helping Peter stay with both feet on the ground, rebuilding the Compound, holding Ross at bay. He wasn't sure what to do with this now.

Then Steve, who always berated Tony for making the decision for everyone without consulting them first, decided for both of them.

Suddenly, lips brushed against Tony's and a rough beard tingled against his upper lips. It was perfectly sweet and much too chaste and tentative to be good. What was he a breakable china doll? And yet, he leaned into it anyway, brushing his lips against Steve, letting the gentle touch pull him along until their lips moved and the spark flew over.

Steve whispered: “I love you. I will never leave you again. We survived that; we'll survive everything now...”

The unexpected shock and joy of it hurt. An ache ran through him like a tingling lightning-flash pain that spread through all of him. He wanted to hear it again, wanted to receive the next kiss and trust it, let things get out of hand right here and now on the... _lawn_.

“Stop!” he hollered and pushed himself back as if burned. “Break it off, FRIDAY! End BARF simulation. STOP!”

Before him Steve's face froze in the moment, remained hanging there, eyes closed, still leaning into the kiss that was no longer happening. His face was softer than it had any right to be.

“This is all wrong!” Tony cursed.

“Boss, parameters are in sync. All information and psych profiles evaluations show that there is at least a 94% chance of accurate predictions at this setting. 98% chance of this helping you to work through the..."

“There is not,” Tony said, his voice now going quiet and Steve's face was still in front of him, hanging frozen in that impossible moment. “There is not.”

It had been a stupid idea. BARF had played through his memories and evaluated what Tony needed. This wasn't what Steve would do. It was what Tony had wanted him to do.

“This was supposed to help me prepare for an actual meeting, not to make me face my own feelings. Those are irrelevant.”

He spun around to walk out of the simulation, didn't even look back at the face of Steve wavering, ignored the BARF console blinking at him. The words on the virtual console read: “New calculation. Result: Predicted accuracy of simulation: 97.457%. Cross-referencing recent unauthorized evaluation of Steve Rogers BARF session conducted in Stark Med facility in Beirut. MATCH.”

But they disintegrated as the console bled away, no longer needed without an active user, putting the device back into standby mode and leaving its creator to figure out what to do on his own.


End file.
